truTV

#truTVisAThing

01 — Campaign Background

During March Madness we launched an award-winning campaign to strike back and win over this audience.

Each March, sports fans turn to truTV to catch their March Madness games. And every year a subset of these people take to social to snark about the games being aired on truTV. In 2015, we launched an award-winning campaign to strike back and win over this audience. This activation had such a profound impact on sentiment and awareness, we knew we needed to take it to the next level in 2016.

02 — Campaign Strategy

It had been a year since the previous March Madness campaign and truTV had come a long way since then as a network. In 2015 we created campaign messaging with the hashtag #HaveUFoundtruTV, announcing the network’s emergence as a premium comedy channel while playing off the joke that sports fans can’t find the channel during March Madness. A year later truTV had lived up to it’s promise, launching critically acclaimed shows and bringing major comedy talent to the network. This meant we needed a new message. Something that spoke to what the network had accomplished over the past year, while continuing to play up the deprecating tone that had worked so well for us the previous year. Through that, we landed on the perfect line (and hashtag): #truTVisAThing

03 — Campaign Activation

We worked closely with Twitter to review the activation details and ensure our media approach was optimized for reach and awareness.

Starting on March 13th and continuing for the next 7 days, we put on a full-court press. Our team was listening in real-time throughout the week – creating over 800 pieces of custom content as we engaged with fans and haters alike to steer the conversation in our favor.

We set out to be seen, heard and appreciated. And we accomplished just that.

The biggest win was not the overwhelming amount of impressions the campaign generated, nor the volume of conversation or the substantial press pick-up, it was changing the audience’s perception about what the network was.

As the campaign took off, so did the press. With the campaign gaining momentum and the snark on full-blast, press mentions began to roll in. Articles covering the campaign were published throughout the week and into the weekend.

“The campaign was tremendously cost-effective and a classic case of turning lemons into delicious lemonade, refreshing a brand that has been used as a punchline on Twitter for far too long. We exceeded every expectation we had and turned more than a few heads within the industry, not to mention the public.”